Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Book Challenge 2.

Day 01 – The best book you read this yearDay 02 – A book that you’ve read more than 3 times

Day 2.

I have read the Bell Jar more than three times. I've read a lot of books more than three times, especially before I had a lot of exposure to good books, but three of the times I read the Bell Jar marked important steps for me. The first time, it was among the only books I owned, Girl, Interrupted being my favorite. I was recommended it by a bookseller and didn't get into it because it wasn't twisted enough, but the language stayed with me enough to spark my interest in Sylvia Plath's poetry. I read it again in college - I didn't have my copy and had to take it out of the library - and cried over it because I was having a time of small things sucking the vigor from me and my endeavors (I was failing a literature class when I became a writing major and had that professor sign me into the course of study). The last time was my senior year, tanked, lying on my bed and listening to Maggie Gyllenhaal's reading of it so I could justify its inclusion in my big senior research project and check a few quotes without giving myself textual vertigo. I couldn't even stand up that day. I had six gin & tonics, which contributed to the stomach cancer of John Gardner, and that was the last thing I learned in college.